Responding to traumatic experiences in the classroom before, during, and after the COVID-19 times.

During these days governed by the uncertainty and confusion caused by the COVID-19, students are being required to stay at home. This is an alteration of their daily routines, meaning that they don’t go to the school anymore and they have to stay at their homes for an undefined period of time. While for some students this does not generate a substantial change in their emotional well being, there are other students that are facing traumatic circumstances at home, that can impact their mental well being in a significant way, and by having to stay at home, they are not able to find a way to scape from that.

Trauma is defined in the dictionary as a disordered physics or behavioral state resulting from severe mental or emotional stress or physical injury. Plenty of students suffer from trauma in their daily lives, and find the schools a refuge from those stressful situations that they can find at home or in their communities. According to sources such as the National Child Traumatic Stress Network, is is estimated that a 40 percent of students in the United States have been exposed to a traumatic stressor in their lives. This is why the teachers must be prepared to find certain behaviors resulting from these traumatic experiences that can mean a learning barrier, not only during the school year, but also -and even more- whenever the coronavirus outbreak has finished.

Dr. Turney, professor of the Education Department at William Woods University, provides a series of elements that can be included in the class to make schools a safe place for these strident that are facing traumatic circumstances at home. Some of the most remarkable ones that can be applied to this situation are:

Creating predictable routines. Routines that give the students confidence, reduce anxiety and help them on achieving independence. Implementing these on the classroom often generate among the students a feeling of structure safety that they might not experience at home.

Creating conditions for calm. The teacher can work on the design of the classroom, transition, or task diagnostics considering elements that can make these generate in the student a feeling of calm and relax, and taking away feelings such as anxiety. Using certain colors, light in the room, and other transitional elements are some examples.

Praising students publicly. Certain students have not ever experienced being recognized at home for an accomplishment or a good behavior, and the school can be the place where they can start to understand that after a good behavior, a good feedback can be received. This generates on them a feeling of safety and confidence.

Modeling behavior. It is important that the teacher bases his or her acts in the possible reaction that can cause to the students. Behaving respectfully, calmed, and in a mature way are requisites for a teacher, because they are subject of the observation of the students, that can make of the teacher a role model.

These are just some of the possible strategies that can be applied in the classroom, that can be missing that the students’ environment at home, and that is necessary for them in order to grow not only as a students but as emotionally healthy human beings.